Texas State Director

PIRG; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 42,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) plan with employer match

Parental leave

Long-term disability insurance

Student loan assistance

Commuter benefit program

Job summary

TexPIRG, based in Austin, TX, seeks a state director to advance consumer and public health campaigns with a strong grassroots focus. You’ll shape priorities, build coalitions across the political spectrum, organize events, and drive media engagement to support our goals in Texas.

The role requires strategic thinking, fundraising efforts, and the ability to travel and work evenings or weekends as campaigns demand.

Qualifications

• Advocacy or organizing experience in campaigns.
• Excellent writing and public speaking skills.
• Ability to build coalitions across diverse groups.
• Strategic thinker with strong problem-solving ability.
• Willing to travel regularly and work evenings/weekends.
• Fundraising experience, particularly grant proposals, is a plus.
• Well-organized with capacity to manage multiple proposals.

Responsibilities

• Help shape program priorities: policy development, research and messaging in Texas.
• Build powerful coalitions across organizations and groups.
• Organize webinars, community events and recruit volunteers.
• Earn traditional and social media attention for campaigns.
• Advocate: lobbying, testifying, and producing written materials.
• Fundraise: write grant proposals and engage donors.
• Grow our team: recruit and manage interns, with potential training for staff.

Skills

Advocacy experience

Grassroots organizing

Public speaking

Writing skills

Media outreach

Relationship building

Travel flexibility

Job description

TexPIRG is an advocate for consumers, advancing solutions to problems that affect our health, safety and well-being. TexPIRG and our national network have a 50-year track record of bringing people together around common-sense ideas - not liberal or conservative ones, just ideas that work. In Texas, that has meant winning Right to Repair protections so Texans can fix electronics and other items they own instead of being forced to replace them, improving transparency in how the state government spends taxpayer dollars, and helping pass laws to protect Texans from identity theft and financial fraud.

We're willing to work with anyone - Republican, Democrat or independent - when we find common ground, and we work anywhere we can make a positive difference: the state capitol, a city hall, Washington, D.C., a courtroom or a boardroom. We don't accept corporate contributions and we're not funded by the government. We rely on thousands of small individual donations, which help us overcome powerful special interests when they stand in the way of solutions.

TexPIRG is seeking a state director to lead our work on campaigns such as:

• Right to Repair: Far too much stuff in our lives is single-use and designed for obsolescence, so we're making more of our things reusable, repairable and recyclable.
• Data Centers: While AI could transform society in positive ways, data centers are straining our energy resources and creating unacceptable levels of pollution, so we're calling for a moratorium on new data centers to give us time to enact standards and protections.
• High Value Healthcare: We pay too much and get too little value out of our health care system today, so this campaign is focused on cutting wasteful spending and absurd price tags.

Key Responsibilities

Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:

• Help shape program priorities: Participate in policy development, research and messaging to determine our priorities in Texas.
• Build powerful coalitions: Reach out to a broad range of organizations and affected constituency groups across the political spectrum to demonstrate support for our campaign goals, including unlikely allies who might agree with us on one issue, even if we disagree on other issues.
• Organize events and recruit volunteers: Organize webinars, community events and public meetings. Recruit organizations and members of the public to attend and participate.
• Earn traditional media and social media attention: Organize media events and write opinion pieces. Build a following on social media for your campaigns.
• Advocate: Present a compelling case to decision-makers for strong consumer and public health protections through lobbying, testifying at hearings, and producing powerful written materials. Build relationships with key players in Texas, the region and at the federal level.
• Fundraise: Write grant proposals, build relationships with foundation staff, and raise money from individual donors to bring more resources to our campaigns.
• Grow our team: Identify and recruit strong candidates to join our staff. Hire and manage interns to maximize the impact of your campaigns. Potential to train and oversee staff.

The position requires exercising discretion and independent judgment in making decisions in matters of significance.

Qualifications

You are:

• Passionate about our public interest mission and using the power of grassroots organizing to win campaigns.
• A campaign advocate or grassroots organizer with at least 2 years of advocacy or organizing experience. Advanced degrees may count toward experience.
• An effective communicator with excellent writing and public speaking skills. Experience getting traditional and digital media coverage in previous work is a plus.
• Creative and effective at solving complex problems; a strategic thinker who can take advantage of new opportunities.
• A connector and good listener with a track record of successful relationship- and coalition-building; willing and interested in working with people who think differently than you.
• Well-organized and able to work on multiple legislative and administrative proposals at once.
• Able to travel regularly and be motivated to work when needed, which may sometimes be in the evenings and on weekends.

Additional helpful experience

• Experience in the Texas Legislature or another government office, or with a consumer protection or public health advocacy organization, is a plus but not required.
• Fundraising experience, particularly in grant-seeking from charitable foundations.

Compensation and Benefits

The starting target annual compensation range for someone with 2-8 years of relevant experience is $41,750-$60,000. Candidates on the lower end of directly relevant experience should expect to be on the lower end of this range; candidates on the higher end of relevant experience are likely to be on the higher end of this range. TexPIRG offers an excellent benefits package. Our benefits package includes medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents, time off, a commuter benefit program, a 401(k) plan with employer match, parental leave, long-term disability insurance, and may include needs-based student loan assistance. We also offer an excellent training program and opportunities for advancement.

Location

Austin, TX

Why work with PIRG?

Check out 10 reasons: https://texpirg.org/why-work-with-us/

About TexPIRG

TexPIRG is an advocate for consumers, advancing solutions to problems that affect our health, our safety and our well-being.

Being a consumer advocate means being a champion for a marketplace that is not only honest and transparent, but also wastes less because it reduces, reuses and recycles more; prevents toxic threats to our health and safety; and considers the impact of new products and technologies on the next generation, not just the next quarterly earnings report.

The true North Star of a successful marketplace should not be the quantity of “stuff” we consume. It should be the quality of our lives.

Our Mission and Values

TexPIRG is part of The Public Interest Network, which operates and supports organizations committed to a shared vision of a new future and a strategic approach to change. Visit https://texpirg.org/core-values/ for things you should know about our network when you apply.

Please do not use AI to help draft your cover letter or responses to our application questions. We want to know how you think and write.

TexPIRG is an equal opportunity employer.